The government of Ecuador is intensifying its fight against the financial structures of organized crime through a specialized financial crime investigation unit, Argentine news site Infobae reported. This unit will pursue those involved in tax and customs fraud, money laundering, and tax evasion.
“This initiative makes it possible to target a problem that has arisen in recent years, related to white-collar crime and the influence of crime in the upper echelons of politics, the state, and institutions,” Dr. Daniel Pontón, a security expert and professor at the School of Security and Defense of Ecuador’s Higher National Studies Institute, told Diálogo on March 28. “It’s important to respond institutionally as organized crime has to penetrate the government because it cannot survive on its own, but rather in collusion with State action in general.”
This new unit is a coordinated institutional effort, which will support the work against criminal groups that other entities such as the Attorney General’s Office and the Comptroller General’s Office, carry out.
Convictions
“It is not enough to investigate; this must translates into effective legal action that really impacts the wealth of those who finance organized crime in Ecuador. Currently, the capability of institutions to combat money laundering are seriously weakened; investigations must be translated into concrete actions,” Glaeldys González, an Ecuadorian analyst with think tank International Crisis Group, told Diálogo. “This should materialize in convictions for these crimes, through a detailed registry of illicit economic activities and the identification of financial indicators and value chains.”
According to studies conducted between 2015 and 2020, there was an average of only three convictions for money laundering and just one between 2020 and 2022, González said.
Wave of violence
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On March 30, a gunman killed eight people and seriously wounded eight others in Guayaquil. A day prior, 20 assailants broke into a hotel in the coastal town of Ayampe in southern Ecuador and kidnapped six adults and a child, all Ecuadorians, local Police Commander Richard Vaca told AFP. Hours later the bullet-riddled bodies of five adults were found on a road.
On March 25, the mayor of the coastal municipality of San Vicente, Brigitte García, and her partner Jairo Loor, director of Communications of the municipality, were killed inside a vehicle, Spanish daily El País reported.
“This wave of violence gives us clear information that there is narco-terrorism in institutions and public officials, which we are cleaning up,” Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa, said on Ecuavisa television network. “Very soon it will come to light.”
During the closing of the second International Consensus Conference for Penitentiary and Citizen Security, held in Quito on March 8 and hosted by the government and the European Union to identify solutions to the crisis of violence in the country, Noboa said that criminal gangs had attempted to carry out a coup d’état, German broadcaster DW reported.
“Narco-politics has penetrated the State, because here the enemy to follow is organized crime, not political groups,” Pontón said. “Finding how to decontaminate politics from this [scourge] is fundamental. I think that’s where the main task lies.”
Safer region
Amid the ongoing violence, Ecuador’s neighbors and partners have stepped up, offering their support. On March 25, the United States donated to Ecuador a C-130 aircraft valued at $12 million for the Ecuadorian Air Force (FAE) to increase its capability to respond to transnational crime and natural disasters, the U.S. Embassy in Ecuador said. Two months prior, during her visit to the South American country, U.S. Army General Laura J. Richardson, commander of U.S. Southern Command, presented a donation of security assistance vehicles and equipment to strengthen Ecuador’s law enforcement, military, and disaster response institutions.
“Without a doubt, the support of our allies against terrorism is a key piece that contributes to dismantling transnational crimes such as drug trafficking, human trafficking, and illicit crimes committed at sea,” said Noboa during the C-130 handover ceremony. “In the framework of joint cooperation, the United States has donated us this aircraft […] to confront organized crime, but also to deploy humanitarian aid missions in all corners of the country.”
The aircraft has the capacity to transport 92 passengers or 74 stretchers, whether to mobilize troops, perform vertical drops, deploy vehicles, or evacuate during disasters, Ecuadorian daily El Mercurio reported. The Hercules was assigned to the FAE’s 11th Transport Wing.
“The effectiveness of the new unit and progress in the fight against money laundering linked to drug trafficking also depends on the strengthening of international cooperation mechanisms to combat the scourge. In this fight, the main allies Ecuador should count on are the United States and the European Union,” González said. “Alliances and support from international bodies such as the U.N., in particular the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime [UNODC]; and the Financial Action Task Force Latin America [GAFILAT], are also vital.”